The Senses
by LikeLavender
Summary: If Troy or Gabriella were asked to describe the bond they share with each other, both would come up with similar answers: She defines him, he makes her whole. In every way, in ever sense.
1. Sight

If you asked anyone, they would tell you college is indisputably one of the most stressful yet amazingly joyful times in life. College is filled with term papers due two weeks too early, three AM fire alarms, impossible final exams, and parties. Parties everywhere. Parties in dirty frat houses where you said yes to gasoline flavored alcohol just to tell your classmates the next day that you had one hell of a night. Dinner parties where you celebrate birthday after birthday at restaurant after restaurant. Parties in your dorm room where you shushed the drunken giggles of your friends as soon as you heard the rounding RA so you wouldn't get written up.

But in between the stress of classes and the blur of party nights, there was a lull that, arguably, could be considered greater than everything else. That was Troy's opinion, anyway. It was a Sunday afternoon and Gabriella had dragged Troy to the library for company and maybe in the hope that he would actually do some studying for once. But Gabriella was so wrong. So wrong! Troy did study. He studied all the time – it just might not be what she wanted him to study. If there was a quiz next Wednesday about how many facial expressions Gabriella makes when she's trying to understand a concept, Troy would ace it. If there was an eight page paper due tomorrow about whether or not Gabriella is 100% the most adorable creature he has ever laid eyes on, Troy would turn it in early. He would turn it in now. Because he already knew – the answer was yes. If there was a math class about the angle of Gabriella's collarbone, the length of her neck, or the perfect curve of her waist Troy would 4.0 it. Because Troy studies. He studies _all_ the time.

Troy was studying right now.

With its big stained glass windows, winding marble staircase, and silent reading room rules, Gabriella chose the most intimidating library on campus. But the silence it was kind of better in a way, Troy decided. The silence made it that much easier for him to concentrate on his current analysis. There was a beam of sunlight filtering through the stained glass windows and onto Gabriella's hair, and the light was doing this funny thing. The sunlight was illuminating Gabriella's head from the back, making her hair shine so much Troy could see little flecks of red and gold in it. She must have felt him grinning at her because just as Troy was about to reach out and brush a stray strand of hair off the edge of her textbook, Gabriella's head shot up.

He was doing it again, watching her. She shouldn't have expected anything less, really. He had been doing it for as long as she had known him. Nevertheless, she asked.

"What are you doing?" Gabriella whispered.

The corners of Troy's lips began to lift until he forced them into a neutral position again. "Nothing. Studying," he answered, hardly keeping his voice down.

"Your book isn't even open," she whispered back, pointing at the closed textbook to his left.

Troy moved the book in front of him and opened it to a random page. "I was reviewing what I knew by memory."

He gave her a cheeky smile and just as she was about to respond, a loud, obnoxious throat was cleared from the table across the room. It was their cue to be quiet. Gabriella's eyes quickly flicked back down to her notes on the table and carried on like nothing happened.

Gabriella didn't really like when Troy stared at her like that – it made her feel uneasy. Maybe because sometimes, when she stared at him and the shadows on his face were cast just right they made him seem ten years older. It wasn't a bad thing, looking at a ten-year-older Troy; it was actually a wonderful, magical thing. Those face shadows made Gabriella think about the future, Troy's future, and how she knew she would be there to witness it. Ten years from now Troy would be thirty-one, she would be thirty-one. They would be thirty-one. And they would be together. It was a little scary at times – those face shadows, the future. But scary in an incredible way, a way that made Gabriella simultaneously freak out and burst with happiness.

She took a quick glance back up at Troy; he was still staring, but this time she didn't interrupt him. His eyes roamed every inch of her skin that he could see; from her fingers that were fiddling with her pencil absentmindedly, to her shoulders where she knew that one strap of her dress had fallen down her arm, and back to her face where they remained, staring unabashedly. He smiled. Gabriella wasn't being a silly, lovesick girl when she thought that when Troy looked at her the love in his eyes was almost tangible. It was just fact.

Troy shut his book, "You wanna go back?" He asked, this time actually whispering.

Without letting her eyes leave his, Gabriella nodded, closing her book and stowing it away in her bag. They pushed their chairs away from the table in unison, meeting half way and connecting hands. Together they walked down the flight of marble stairs and out the front door into the fresh air and warm sunlight of the early spring afternoon.

Do you know why the quiet lull of college days is the greatest? Because it gives you time to think, to look across whatever table you're sitting at and evaluate what you see. Without the distraction of an insanely hard midterm hanging over your head, without a bottle of tequila that was surely the reason you told everyone you loved them at that one house party. And what's across from you at that table, if it's what you love, what you chose to study, well it's probably going to be a part of your life forever.

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**AN: **Hey, don't worry, I'm still writing Closer, I just really, really needed a break. This is going to be relatively short, just five drabble length chapters corresponding with each sense. Hope you enjoyed this mindless fluff. :)


	2. Sound

Love can be intimidating, it can be scary and threatening and everything in between. Sometimes love can even seem impossible. You look all your life to find that one person who makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up forever, and most of the time your search seems to be futile. Some people are too eager, jumping into love too quickly. Some people are scared, so scared they choose to never look. Gabriella determined there are only two sensible reasons for a person to fear love. One: the example set by their parents was less than satisfactory. Two: said person had been hurt by a significant other in the past.

Gabriella could use none of those reasons as an excuse. Her parents were still happily married, she only ever had one boyfriend, whom she was still with and whom quite possibly could be the most perfect specimen of boyfriend one could find. There was really no reason for her to be afraid. And she wasn't. Not really. Sort of. This morning just felt a little bit different.

It was early June and the end of their junior year in high school was coming to a close. Gabriella's alarm blared in her room at the usual but nevertheless god-awful hour of 5:00 in the morning. This was the daily routine: wake up, shower, dress, smell the coffee but never have time to drink, go to school.

Gabriella's house was pretty quiet that morning. The only sound she could hear came from the kitchen where the coffee percolator switched on, signaling to Gabriella that it was 5:45. She entered the kitchen to find her dad, like usual, seated in one of the kitchen chairs sipping his coffee and rustling his daily _New York Times_. Like clockwork, fifteen minutes later Troy's truck rumbled up Gabriella's driveway and that was her cue to leave. She grabbed an apple out of the bowl on the counter, kissed her dad goodbye on the cheek, and left out the front door.

Troy and his old white truck greeted Gabriella as she stepped outside. His window was down and his fingers tapped an unfamiliar beat on the metal frame.

"Morning, Troy." Gabriella spoke, her back pressed against the front door.

Troy smiled and called her over with a gentle wave of his hand, "Morning, babe."

With Gabriella standing in front of Troy's door and her hand clasped between his they shared a lingering kiss before she hopped in the passenger seat. Almost immediately as they pulled out of the driveway, the cab of the truck filled with Troy's halfhearted humming. It was his routine, and Gabriella let it lull her to sleep.

Once Troy and Gabriella arrived at East High they walked hand in hand to the back entrance of the school where they split off in opposite directions. Troy to the weight room, Gabriella to wander the school until it was early enough for the library to open. Lately she had taken to sitting in the football bleachers to watch the sky turn from a hazy lavender to a bright baby blue and today was no different. Gabriella laid down on the bleachers, her back pressed against the cool steel and listened to the increasingly loud chirps of birds and the steady click of the sprinklers.

Troy was special - Gabriella knew that. She knew from the beginning of their relationship that he was as good as they come. He was good to the very core of the word, he was kind and patient; he was smart and funny. Troy was a catch. He picked her up every morning when he didn't have to, even though her house was fifteen minutes in the wrong direction. But he did it anyway. He did it because that's who Troy is.

Gabriella hummed a bit of the song Troy started in the car earlier that morning and sighed to herself. Next year they would be seniors, and the year after that they would be in college. Troy was special – Gabriella knew that. But did she see him that far in her future? Sure, they were official; they had been for more than a year, but was she going to choose her university based on its surrounding schools and their offers to Troy? Did he love her? Did she love him? Instinctually Gabriella's heart said yes, and maybe Troy's did too, but nothing had ever been said explicitly. And did she want to love him? Gabriella didn't know. She didn't know a lot of things.

The bleachers creaked and Gabriella felt the weight of a person sit down beside her head. Gabriella looked up to find Troy smiling down at her. He could always find her.

Gabriella sat up and Troy bumped her shoulder with his before he took a deep breath.

"You're early," Gabriella said reflexively lacing her fingers with his.

Troy nodded and kissed the back of her hand, "I wanted to talk to you before school starts."

Gabriella adjusted where she sat to face him more directly, "Okay," she squeezed his hand.

He smiled and looked out to the football field where the sprinkler system had yet to end and the continuous click-click-click filled the air. Troy cleared his throat.

"Remember that time a couple weeks ago when my parents were out of town and I had no food so you made me sandwiches and brought them over?"

Gabriella shook her head with a smile, "Yeah."

"And then you came in the kitchen with that grocery bag and then you leaned over the couch kissed me and we sat on the couch and watched random episodes of the Aladdin T.V. show?"

Gabriella's brows began to furrow, "Yeah, I do. Where are you going with this Troy?"

Troy sighed and ruffled his hair, pushing it back away from his forehead. He looked directly at Gabriella, and ran his hand up and down her forearm. "Well that's when I knew."

"Knew what?"

"That I love you, Gabriella."

Hearing Troy's words spoken aloud, not just in her head or heart was all it took for Gabriella to be sure, 100% positive that she loved him too.

Love is difficult. Sometimes it sucks; it can be hard and frustrating, or completely terrifying. And sometimes love is amazing; it can be magical and perfect, or the only thing you need. Sometimes you wonder and wonder if you're willing to love, if the benefits outweigh the potential problems. Are you ready to hop that fence, take that chance? You should be. Take that chance. Hop that fence. Lives shouldn't be wasted fearing love and what it could bring. Lives should be spent loving. Taking chances. Hopping fences.

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**AN:** Hiiiii. Yay, I hope you liked it :)

And I am SO. SORRY. I haven't gotten anything for Closer out in like, more than a month. It's just kind of really difficult to write right now, but man, am I trying.

Thank you soooo much to my beta reader, you seriously are amazing.


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